"Come on! Don't be so shy! Just sit over there! Sorry, the place is a bit messy. Wait a minute, I will make tea for us." The man, Chen Ze, greeted them casually as if they had known each other for a long time. However, both Levin and Mira couldn't stay calm.
Even though it was only for a few hours, they had also explored this abandoned city, and they were sure they had a grasp on the architectural style of the buildings here. Even though there would be one or two anomalies, there shouldn't be a building that was too different compared to the others.
However, here they were, completely dumbfounded at the sight in front of them. Gone was the ordinary building they knew, and it was replaced by a decent, modern laboratory that Levin often saw when he was still a student. The equipment itself wasn't that impressive. No, it was far from the cutting-edge technology he had imagined from someone with a robot eagle in his possession. However, the fact that the man in front of him managed to build everything from almost nothing just in two days blew his mind.
As for Mira, she stared at her surroundings with a mix of astonishment and curiosity. If before, she thought that the robot eagle was impressive enough, now she felt that she didn't know anything about technology. Well, that was indeed the case since she came from a pretty backward world. Everything was new and unfamiliar for her, and she really wanted to know everything about it.
"What are those?" She pointed her fingers at a bunch of small robots with a round body and eight legs like a spider working together to build something.
"Oh, those?" Chen Ze glanced for a second before turning back to the tea he currently made. "Those are the microbots I made in the past to help me do all of the heavy lifting work in my lab. I am so lucky that I bring them all here so that I don't have a lot of trouble setting up everything for myself."
"Are they really that strong?" Mira asked, her eyes still locking in the microbots on the other side of the room.
"Oh, by a human scale, they are not that impressive. Each one could only carry for about 100 grams." Chen Ze said. "However, for the microbot itself, that weight is impressive, considering it is about twenty times its original weight. Can you imagine you are carrying something that is twenty times heavier than you, Young Lady?" He asked the girl with a smile on his face.
Mira gasped, staring at the microbots in disbelief. In her mind, the concept of a weight twenty times heavier than her was not something she had ever thought of before. She couldn't help but imagine how big the thing was. It should probably be like the massive boat that she lived on in her original world, right? When she thought about carrying it on her own… She shuddered in fear, not wanting to think something so terrifying like that.
"Impressive, right?" Chen Ze said, satisfied with Mira's reaction. "However, the most impressive thing is here!" Right after he pressed a button that he carried in his pocket, all the eight microbots who were currently building something suddenly stopped their doing, turning around, and starting to dance strangely in front of them all. Mira's eyes shone brightly when she saw how cute those were, but Levin himself had a solemn gaze on his face.
'With how tiny and flexible those are, he could build a lot of things that need to be on a micro-scale like electronic parts or something like that. Hell, he could even build his own computer here from scratch, something that I have never thought about since the start of the game. It seems just like the other players, he is not someone I can underestimate so easily.'
They all spent the next few minutes enjoying the tea Chen Ze made while Mira kept asking a lot of things about the new technology around her. They hit off really well, with Mira being a sponge to the knowledge that she just learned while Chen Ze was happy that he could share his passion with the younger girl. Hell, Levin even felt alarmed once when he saw the glimpse of madness in Chen Ze's eyes after Mira asked a good question, knowing that he had already had his eyes on the little girl.
"Okay!" He cleared his throat, gaining the attention of the two people in front of him. "Since we all are finally here, can we go back to the original topic?" He asked wryly.
Mira felt her cheeks flushed, embarrassed that she was carried away by her curiosity. As for Chen Ze, he just nodded before sitting nonchalantly in front of Levin. That was the first time they both met eyes to eyes, and the two adults in the room couldn't help but observe the man in front of them intently.
'Besides his exotic silver hair, everything about his physical appearance resembles that of a resident of the Xing Federal. With slanted eyes, paled skin, and his tall body, if I didn't know better, I would think that I would think that he was just an ordinary citizen from the Xing. Still, he is too thin, and his face is too pale. The white lab coat he wears also starts to turn yellow, showing that he doesn't care too much about himself. Hmm… Well, at least I don't need to worry if he did something to betray me.' Levin thought.
Right after that, Chen Ze suddenly pulled something out of his pocket. "Okay, first thing first, use this." He threw that thing to Levin, which the soldier caught it easily. He looked down and realized that it was a set of chemical vials. "Don't use a pouch. Not only it is not hygienic, but the smell will also attract the other players with strong smell sense. You don't know what the other players are capable of."
Levin nodded, accepting the vial casually. He transferred the blood he saved to two different pouches immediately, knowing that this was the best way to save it. Those were the blood of the fire mage and the illusionist he killed earlier, and he needed to preserve it better since he didn't know when would he need to have it.
"So, have you already put your eyes on someone?" Levin asked.
"Yes, you can see the profile later." Chen Ze nodded. "Can you do it in your current state, though?"
"Don't worry, I will take a rest first for tonight." Levin waved the concern nonchalantly. "Anyway, what about the information you promise me?"
"Here, you can see it by yourself." Chen Ze slid the laptop so that it would face Levin directly.
They both didn't care that this scene looked like a transaction between a mercenary and its client because it was indeed the scenario here. Unlike Levin's interaction with Mira where the girl was still full of innocence, both Levin and Chen Ze were adults, and they knew they couldn't ask each other something without offering anything in return. So, here they were, with Levin offering Chen Ze his service to kill the other players so that the scientist could meet the requirement to advance to the next round, while Chen Ze was offering the information he gained by using the robot eagle he had to observe the surroundings.
For them both, this was a win-win negotiation.
"Okay." Levin shifted a little, trying to make himself comfortable. Mira also leaned forward, curious about what he was doing. There, suddenly, in front of them, the screen shone brightly, showing a record that Chen Ze saved for them. "Let's see what the other players could do!"